In response to external damage and internal degeneration, the cells of the body must repair the membrane surrounding each individual cell in order to maintain their function and the health of the organism. Defects in the ability of the cell to repair external membranes have been linked to many diseases and pathological conditions, for example, neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Parkinson's Disease), heart attacks, heart failure, muscular dystrophy, bed sores, diabetic ulcers, oxidative damage, and tissue damage such as sinusitis that occur as side effects from the administration of chemotherapeutic agents. Also, the muscle weakness and atrophy associated with various diseases, as well as the normal aging process, have been linked to altered membrane repair. In order for these cells to repair their membranes in response to acute damage they make use of small packets of membrane—referred to as vesicle—that are inside of the cell. These vesicles are normally found within the cell, but upon damage to the cell membrane, these vesicles move to the damage site and form a patch to maintain cell integrity. Without this essential function, the cell can die and the cumulative effect of this cellular injury can eventually result in dysfunction of the tissue or organ.
Many companies are interested in approaches to improve the regenerative capacity of various tissues. For example, the wound repair market, alone, is expected to exceed $11 billion by 2009. Therefore, there exists an ongoing need for the development of pharmaceutical modulators of the cell membrane repair process for the treatment of conditions related to acute and chronic cellular and tissue damage, as well as effective and/or optimized methods for expressing and/or producing such therapeutic modulators.